Sustrans/Bike it

On Sunday 2nd July 10 pupils from Hadrian took part in an orienteering event at Linford Wood in Milton Keynes. The weather was just perfect for their last event this academic year. They all managed to successfully complete a 2.8km course. This was followed by a super picnic and a welcome visit from Derek. The orienteering squad have been very active this year.

The Big Pedal

The Big Pedal this year has been a great success! Schools across the UK competed to clock up the most bike and scooter journeys. We worked really hard to ensure that we biked and scooted as much as possible. Our work has certainly payed off as we managed to rank third out of schools in our locality and fifth out of schools across Dunstable, Leighton Buzzard and Houghton Regis!

The Big Pedal was a great way to get more of our pupils active and traveling to school on their bikes and scooters. As a reward for all of our work, we were treated with an amazing show- the Danny Butler Extreme Mountain Bike Show! We were wowed with tricks and stunts, some of which were a little bit scary! We loved watching Danny and Rob perform complicated and difficult manoeuvres; they had us on the edge of our seats!

Cycle4Life Bikeability Level 2

A number of year 5 students were lucky enough to have some additional road cycling training. The children learnt skills that will last a lifetime. Their training included not just riding ability but also self-reliance, decision-making and how to keep fit and healthy.

The children thoroughly enjoyed training for their Level 2 Bikeability award and as you can see, they are extremely proud of their achievements. Their smiles were as bright as the stars when they received their certificates and badges! Well done!

Nearly half the school completed the Christmas challenge to cycle, scoot or walk to school every day over the 2 weeks. Overall the whole school managed to accumulate 7598 miles which is enough miles to travel to Lapland three times!

Well done to everyone who joined in with the challenge which encouraged us all to think about more healthier lifestyles.

‘Cycle, Scoot or Walk to Santa’ December Challenge! From Monday 28th November to Friday 9th December 2016

Children from schools across Dunstable and Houghton Regis are taking part in a Christmas challenge to cycle, scoot or walk to Lapland to see Father Christmas.

‘Cycle to Santa’ is a competition, organised by Central Bedfordshire’s Travel Choices, in which children and their families collect miles towards a virtual 2,050 mile trip from Dunstable to Lapland. An amazing 1,963 children and their parents have already signed up for the challenge and Hadrian will be trying their best to reach Santa. Good luck everyone!

School Year 2015/16 Summary

Hadrian have gained the Silver School Mark for Sustainable Travel this year. This has been achieved by the Year 5/6 children taking part in the Bike Ability Courses. The rest of the school fully participated in Cycle to Santa and Big Pedal both of which Hadrian have been one of the top schools in the country. During the year children have enjoyed Scootability days for all year groups. These have been run by Derek Smulders our Sustrans Officer. We have also had visits from Doctor Bike who helps maintain the childrens and adults bikes to a high standard of safety.

Twice this year we have held Bikers Breakfast and the children have scooted or biked to school and have enjoyed toast, biscuits, hot chocolate etc as well as making their own smoothies on the bike.

This year at the Summer Fete we were lucky to be able to borrow a spinning bike to make pictures on plates. It was very successful and made children (and some adults) exercise for their art work.

A big thank you to parents and children in helping Hadrian gain the Silver Award.

Now for the Gold in 2017.

On 12th Feb 2016 ‘Bikeability’ returned to Hadrian with 15 children in years 5 and 6 taking part and completing the first stage of ‘Bikeability’.

The week ended with Children from year 4 who had a fantastic opportunity to add to their cycling skills. Before any teaching took place every bike had a very important safety check performed to make sure they were street worthy. Then the children had a fun session on the playground with the main aim to teach them control and manoeuvering their bikes through a range of activities.

On Monday 4th December we had our Bikers Breakfast as part of the Santa Challenge. Over the past week children and parents have been cycling, scooting and walking into Hadrian in an attempt to reach Santa at the North Pole. Warm porridge, toast and hot chocolate were served by the teachers to pupils and parents. The Smoothie Bike was also present with the children using pedal power to make some fresh healthy smoothies to drink. Thank you to everyone who turned up to support this event.

Over a week in November 20 children from Years 5 and 6 have completed their first part of Bikeability – ‘cycling proficiency’ for the 21st Century! It’s fun and gives the children the skills and confidence to cycle in modern road conditions. Below are details of what the children have achieved in order to pass Level 1.

Once they’ve completed Bikeability Level 1 and been awarded the red badge, they will be able to:

Fit their own helmet

Carry out a simple bike check

Get on their bike, start cycling, then stop and get off

Ride their bike using the gears

Make their bike go where they want it to, including moving around objects safely

Control the bike with one hand

Stop quickly if they need to

Look all around them when they’re riding, including behind, without wobbling

We were really pleased that over 100 children had an opportunity to take part in ‘Scootability’ under the instruction of Derek Smulders on behalf of Sustrans. Once more this was a very successful event which took place over two days on the school playground and helped pupils to improve their scooting skills. Scootability is designed as a fun and active way to reinforce the basic message of pedestrian and road safety and to encourage the use of scooters as an alternative healthy form of travel to and from school. It teaches children how to stop safely, the importance of remaining balanced and in control which are messages equally relevant to younger children and to older children who walk or scoot to school, to the local shops or around where they live.

School Year 2014/15

The Extreme Mountain Bike Show paid the whole school a visit as a thank you from Sustrans/Bike it to local schools for all our efforts in the recent ‘Big Pedal’. A very enthusiastic audience went out onto the school playground to watch the skillful display and were impressed by what they saw. So a big Thank You to Mr Smulders for all his work in organising these events for us.

Around the World in 80 Ways – winners announced.

Well done to Ivet, Lucas, David, Ruby Merson, Leo, Chanelle and Luke who all received a lucky bag from full of handy biking gifts.

Around the World in 80 Ways

Travel Choices want to encourage pupils to think about sustainable and healthy travel. What better way than for pupils to design their own mode of green transport. Taking part in Around the World in 80 Ways (The Big picture): Any year groups can take part, and we ask for all artworks to be completed and sent to/collected by us before the 27th March 2015. For full details click here – Around the World details

The Big Pedal is back in March at Hadrian.

The Big Pedal is the UK’s largest inter-school cycling and scooting challenge that inspires pupils, staff and parents to choose two wheels for their journey to school.

Powered by Sustrans and funded by the Bike Hub, the 2015 competition will run from 2nd to 20th March and is open to individual classes as well as the whole schools.

On each day of the challenge schools compete to see who can record the greatest number of pupils, staff and parents cycling or scooting to school. The school’s best 10 days will determine their final position, but they can log journeys on all 15 days if they wish.

January 2015 – Travel Choices and Hadrian Academy make the news. Click on image and read on.

Once again this year Hadrian Academy has been involved with Travel Choices with lots more exciting activities planned. On Tuesday this week 20 children throughout the school have been taking part in ‘Scootability’. This course is designed to help children develop their skills on the scooter and understand the importance of safety. Children were encouraged to use the scooter using both left and right feet, practise safe stopping without brakes, and turn to navigate their way around objects. Overall this was a really successful event, with children developing a greater confidence and awareness of safety when riding their scooters.

2013/14

After 2 weeks of taking part in the ‘Big Pedal’ Derek Smulders from Sustrans sent us the following good news:

The final results are in, and I can confirm you are all winners! The results have changed a little since I looked Friday afternoon andHadrian just squeezes in at the end to pip Barnfield for the top Dunstable place (21,400 to 21,129 points). I also noted that Ashton just beat Brewers Hill by the very narrowest of margins- 19,418 to 19,410!!

The important thing is that 6,129 journeys were completed by bike or scooter in the 10 days of the competition. Brilliant. Derek Smulders

Click here to find the results covering all school age ranges and the top class from each.

Hadrian Academy has signed up with ‘Sustrans’ and is now part of an exciting national project, with funding from Central Bedfordshire, which works to increase the number of children and young people travelling actively to school. Alvina Farrow is our ‘Sustrans Bike It’ officer and will be working closely with the school, children and parents to increase opportunities for walking, scooting and cycling to school. Here are some of the reasons why: It is a great way of getting some of the 60 minutes of daily exercise as recommended by health experts.

Cycling and scooting are lots of fun, and help young people become more independent and develop vital road safety skills which keep them safe for life.

It is good for the environment and helps cut down traffic congestion and air pollution in the area around the school.

There are lots of walking and cycling routes around Dunstable, waiting to be used!